US Saudi UAE Yemen military weaponry politics
13 Haziran 2019 - 00:18

US House also seeks to block Trump arms sales to Saudi Arabia
Washington, June 12, 2019 (AFP) - US House of Representatives lawmakers
introduced a bipartisan measure Wednesday to block President Donald Trump's
weapons sales to Saudi Arabia, after his administration announced it was
bypassing Congress to transfer arms to the kingdom and other allies.
The lower chamber's pushback against the White House comes a week after US
senators across the political spectrum also moved to prevent the $8.1 billion
sale.
The Trump administration antagonized lawmakers by announcing last month it
would use emergency powers to defy Congress and provide munitions, aircraft,
maintenance and other military components to Saudi Arabia, the United Arab
Emirates and Jordan.
The White House argued that an increasing threat from Iran was the primary
reason for circumventing the required congressional review of the 22 arms
transfers, saying a freeze on sales by Congress could affect the Arab allies'
operational abilities.
But lawmakers have remained angry with the kingdom eight months after the
murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, a US resident who had written
critically of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and was killed in Turkey
by agents from Riyadh.
Lawmakers including Trump loyalists have expressed concern that US weapons
might be used against civilians in Yemen by the Saudi-led coalition engaged in
the brutal war there.
House Democrat Ted Lieu introduced the resolution to block the sales,
co-sponsored by Republican Justin Amash.
"There is no emergency. It's phony, it's made up, and it's an abuse of the
law," House Foreign Affairs Committee Eliot Engel told a hearing Wednesday, as
he blasted the administration for seeking to "cut Congress out of the picture."
Michael McCaul, the panel's top Republican, called use of the emergency
powers "unfortunate," noting that some of the arms sales hardly appear urgent
because they "will not be ready for delivery for over a year."
A US diplomat countered that the emergency declaration was justified
because of the "uptick of the threat streams" from Iran.
Washington should be "sending a message of deterrence to Tehran," and
"sending a message to our partners to reassure them that we are with them
shoulder to shoulder," assistant secretary of state for military affairs
Clarke Cooper told the hearing.
Last week, Republican senators including Trump supporter Lindsey Graham
joined Democrats to introduce 22 resolutions to block each of the sales.
No date has been set for the votes in either chamber.
Should any of the resolutions be adopted, Trump would likely block them
with a veto.
Congress requires a two-thirds majority in both chambers to override a
veto.
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